Powerful Speakers Connect

It was not 'Verbal Blackface'. AOC was codeswitching by John McWhorter
The Atlantic, April 9, 2019

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In this powerful and clear article in The Atlantic, John McWhorter explicates the phenomenon of codeswitching in American culture by examining a recent incident involving Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's use of several phrases of Black English at a political event. Some of AOC's political opponents accused her of "verbal blackface," and McWhorter explains how her use of ebonics is both an authentic and appropriate means of connecting with her black audience. He goes further to talk about the shelves of linguistic research that reveal the sophistication of ebonics as a complex language rather than a degraded, error-filled set of linguistic norms used by uneducated people. He underscores that the charge against AOC of being inauthentic is erroneous. Further, he emphasizes that ebonics in urban America is no longer solely the language in African American communities; in fact, it has become part of the lingua franca in other communities, such as the Latinx community in which AOC grew up. This article is particularly important to educators who should be well-grounded in the complexities of what constitutes standard English as they educate students who codeswitch and students who might form negative or ill-informed judgements about others who are conversant in a variety of English dialects. In fact, this article would be a superb text to use with students to complicate their understanding of persuasive language and the ways that powerful speakers connect with a variety of audiences for a variety of purposes.